Pages

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Painted floors and a rustic barn door for my cottage office

Ok you’re right. I’m just kidding. But a gal can dream about sitting in an office that’s totally D-O-N-E can’t she?

The truth is, I’m finally making progress on my office and this weekend I’ve been hunkered down in sweats and t-shirt determined to finish my floor. Did I tell you I decided to yank up that ugly carpet?

Living in a house built in 1966, I had a teeny-weeny hope that I’d hit the jackpot and discover hardwood underneath. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen?

But nooooooo this is what I found instead:

Caked on glue and random staples sticking out of some disgusting looking plywood.

And you may wonder what kind of crazy person would ever waste valuable time yanking out staples and painting over this kind of plywood?

The answer is moi, of course.

(Can you imagine all this yuck painted a pristine white? Don’t worry I can’t either)

But since Mr. Moss and I haven’t had a single discussion about flooring for our upstairs (so many other projects) painting my little office floor with white porch paint buys me some time …and makes me happy for now.

The fabulous news is that my Mom and Dad came to visit for New Years and besides having a beautiful week together, my awesome Dad made me some bookshelves !!!!

And yes….I love-love love my new wall-to-wallbookshelves, and just finished painting them a few days ago. By-the-way, my parents couldn’t believe how real that beadboard wallpaper looks behind the bookshelves. Stay tuned, my reveal is coming soon.

But first, I gotta finish this floor.

Will it work? I have absolutely no idea, I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Oh, and did I mention the barn door I’m working on now? I’ve been eyeing these all over Pinterest and whenever I go to Home Depot with my Dad it never fails. I get giddy happy about a new idea. Seriously, that place is my version of a flashing neon disco with this song blasting overhead…

Forgive me, I digress.

Back to my DIY barn door.

So. Once we decided on the sheets of pine for the shelving, I had my Dad include an extra one in his truck along with a thin (quarter inch) piece of plywood --that might have been a type of paneling because it had a grain pattern.

We cut this plywood into six inch strips.

Can you guess why?

Yep. Those would become the fake planks on my barn door. I’m telling you, I figured out how to make a pretty authentic barn door for pennies compared to the real ones.

After we decided how tall the barn door needed to be to slide over my closet, we cut it.

Then framed it with the extra pine pieces from my bookshelf project.

The plywood was cut into strips that would fit inside

This is a photo of the six inch wide ‘planks’ fitting into the front to create the illusion of a plank door.

And here’s what I did today.

Before staining the entire door, I distressed the “planks” by brushing the sides with black paint to add depth.

Then I laid them on the floor and proceeded to age them by scuffing them up.

Basically I filled a plastic bag with screws and nails and randomly placed the bag around the thin strips of wood and started pounding.

Once I got the effect I wanted I glued them onto the front of the barn door where they now sit and dry beneath the weight of some books.

I stain it tomorrow.

Don’t forget to check back to see the finished door and my painted floor.

And the color decision for my bookshelves. Remember that question? Seems like ages ago.

Today I ordered my barn door hardware from HERE. Since I’ve only spent $34.95 for the pine sheet and $12.95 for the plywood (planks) I don’t mind splurging on some cool hardware.

Okay that door....is going to be fabulous!! I am really into barn doors these days, have been ever since we did a sliding barn-style door to our downstairs bathroom. I am now convinced to do the same thing for our upstairs bathroom. Crazy amount of extra wall space because of it.When we were decided to pull up some linoleum in one of the main floor rooms I had the same feeling as you...hardwood, hardwood, please...hardwood! And nope, I too got plywood. :)

Oh Leslie I can't wait to see this reveal!! I LOVE LOVE the barn door and that's only from seeing a peek! I love your style! Seeing the photo of your dad making the bookshelves made me miss my dad all the more...he was a fabulous woodworker and worked on so many projects for us in our first home.

Your office is going to be awesome! Love that you are painting the floor, I would like to try that somewhere. And your father is a doll, is he a carpenter or just handy? We could all use a guy like him in our lives. The shelves and barn door are going to be wonderful. You really and truly put a lot of thought in your office where I just did the best with what I had. I am getting to work on my Woman Cave this month so that's exciting! :)

You are so creative! And I remember your awesome Dad from a previous post. Mine is pretty amazing too, but lives in Australia. Oh well!I think if I ever give up on writing I'd like to put more time into making things beautiful. You won't believe it but I did it in a past life - maybe you read about my gallery with restored West African plantation furniture. And now my place is crammed with it!Look forward to seeing the rest xxcat

Leslie,You are so lucky to have such a talented daddy. My dad was the exact same way. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us. I really like the plywood floors. I think it's brilliant to paint them white until you decide what you want for long term flooring. We have concrete under our carpet (which only involves the bedrooms at this point) but I'd love to have something other than carpet in the those bedrooms...just not in the budget for now.The barn door is great, I can hardly wait to see the reveal.xo,Karen

OMG - such a mess, staples and yucky. You will feel so much better once it is clean and painted. When we pulled up the yucky carpet there were a zillion staples and lots of dirt but the floors beneath were previously painted, so just needed freshening up. Can't wait to see your room and your barn door! So excited! Patty

Um, yes... I know someone else who would "waste" time removing those staples. :-) LOVE your bookshelves and that barn door! Looks like you and Dad make a great team. Can't wait to see the finished space.

Your bookshelf that your father built will be the star of the show...or maybe the barn door!! Wow! You've really made some great progress in your office. I've removed thousands of staples and nails from floors and it's not easy! Your floors will look fab painted white, Leslie!

It's going to be gorgeous! I love barn doors and your book shelves I covet. :) Your Dad is obviously very talented. So neat that you have him to help. My brother and sister-in-law chose to live in my mother's home after she had to go into the nursing home and they re-did it. Absolutely beautiful now! Anyway, they put a barn door in and it's such a unique look.

Oh my goodness I am catching up on your posts! That barn door is genius! Aren't you lucky to have a handy father as well!! We flipped a house a few years ago and my son and his wife pulled every one of those staples out...what a yucky mess that was. I can sympathize!